YWCA to receive $500k for Huber Heights campus upgrades

YWCA Dayton is set to receive $500,000 from the newly approved state capital budget, which will support its goal of transforming its new Huber Heights campus.The YWCA Dayton’s newest location was previously a state-operated residential facility for people with developmental disabilities, and was acquired two years ago from the State of Ohio.Since the campus sat vacant for several years, the facilities at 7650 Timbercrest Drive need significant repairs and upgrades. This campus includes 11 buildings on over 19 acres: seven residential units, a 20,000-square-foot administration building with community meeting space, and green space with a gazebo, picnic shelter, and trail.The Huber Heights campus, which is situated away from downtown and in a residential area, provides the opportunity for women to be part of a longer process of healing and live in a community that seeks to end the cycle of homelessness and violence. The focus will be on building individual sustainability outside of subsidy.The broader campus will be developed as a unique “Non-Profit Business Park.” It will fill a gap by centralizing shared services in the region, while also hosting social enterprises that generate revenue for the organization to fund on-site programs.“This particular space allows us to think about our services through the lens of the latter part of our mission: promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all; not just for those in the throes of disruption, not just on an individual basis, but from a holistic, community perspective,” said Shannon Isom, president and CEO of YWCA Dayton. “How do we become a catalyst and a convener for the things our community still so desperately needs? There are so very few agencies that get presented with the ability to create, to be innovative, to build, to develop in partnership with others; YWCA Dayton is in a place, and a season, to embrace that.”Through fundraising, YWCA has already started work on the main building and several of the residential cabins, but additional funding from the state budget will be crucial toward the total renovation.